Texans turn focus to Redskins as preseason comes to an end

Thursday night’s 40-13 loss to San Francisco signaled the end of preseason, and now the Bill O’Brien era officially begins on Sept. 7 when the Redskins visit NRG Stadium.

I’m not sure what O’Brien and his assistants learned from the last preseason game, a putrid performance by reserves on offense, defense and special teams.

The Texans ended preseason the same way they began – with an embarrassing loss, but who cares?

“Preseason’s over, and now we’re moving on to regular season,” O’Brien said after closing his first preseason with a 2-2 record. “I’m really looking forward to practice on Monday.”

That’s when the players return to Methodist Training Center to begin preparations for Washington.

The next time the Texans step on the natural grass at NRG Stadium, they’ll be a different team.

“In every preseason game, we tried to keep it fairly basic,” O’Brien said. “Now it’s time to become the team we are. We’re a gameplan team on offense and defense.”

In other words, the coaches will watch film of opponents and base their gameplan on what they believe is the best way to attack on both sides of the ball. They’ll try to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses.

O’Brien, who calls the plays, and his trusted sidekick, quarterbacks coach George Godsey, will unveil an offense that was hiding in preseason.

The key, of course, is can quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick run the offense the way the coaches demand?

And will Fitzpatrick avoid the mistakes, especially interceptions, that have plagued him during most of his career?

Fitzpatrick, who ranked third in red zone passing and fourth in third down passing for Tennessee last season, is going to play with a full arsenal of weapons that were missing in preseason.

For the first time since he suffered a season-ending back injury last season, Arian Foster will be healthy. He’s a three-down back during a time in the NFL when most teams are utilizing a running-back-by-committee approach to go with multiple receivers.

To pair with Foster, Fitzpatrick will have receivers Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins. Johnson barely broke a sweat in preseason, and he should pick up where he left off last season when he registered a second consecutive 100-catch season.

Something O’Brien and his training and medical staffs did so well in preseason was to be overly cautious with injured players to ensure they would be ready for the Redskins. Barring injuries in practice next week, the Texans will be in excellent shape physically.

Fans are pumped to see what long-time defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is going to do against the Redskins after being about as vanilla as a gallon of Blue Bell in preseason. He’ll unwrap some blitz packages while trying to contain RG3 when he’s forced from the pocket.

Crennel will have a full complement of defensive players on the field for the first time since he came to Houston.

Watt sweated more thinking about being underpaid than he did making a couple of cameo appearances in preseason.

If he doesn’t get that long-term extension he’s seeking, Watt will enter the Washington game about as angry as a bull that’s just been branded. He’ll want to take out that anger on someone in burgundy and gold. That someone will be Griffin, who struggled in preseason under first-year coach Jay Gruden.

Once regular season begins, the Texans won’t do squat unless the special teams perform better than the fourth quarter on Thursday night when they went home early.

Until then, the special teams had been impressive under coordinator Bob Ligashesky, and here’s a prediction they will be special again when the NRG Stadium lights go on against the Redskins.